Days With the Duerksens

My first day of Kdg. in 1984.  I remember that dress!  I think I wore it later in the year on our field trip to the zoo.  I don't look too sure about leaving, and I remember being a little scared sitting in the front seat of the bus.  I was glad to have my older sister with me, although I'm sure she abandoned me as soon as we got on the bus!!  (I know you love me now, Vanessa).

All day yesterday Cambry kept exclaiming, "I can't wait for tomorrow!"  She's been so eager to start Kindergarten and Caiden has been so reluctant to start 2nd grade (at least he acts like he doesn't want to go - I think it's just a show)!  Last night, we went over the morning schedule again:  wake up, get dressed, breakfast, brush teeth, do hair (a new addition for school mornings - Caiden was so easy)!   I thought it would be hard for them to go to sleep, but they fell asleep almost immediately. Chelan woke the kids up this morning - a surprise for them.  We're all getting up before Chelan leaves for work - quite a change!  We had our traditional back-to-school cinnamon rolls.  Well, everyone but Cambry.  She has to have cereal in the mornings!  Then, it was off to the end of the driveway.  After they had gotten on the bus and I was walking, I suddenly realized that I hadn't thought to give Cambry a hug or ...

We've had nearly 12 weeks of summer vacation, and, if I'm being honest, I have to say, "That's long enough!"   Here are my thoughts at the end of summer (they're pretty random): 1.  The kids have to get on the bus at 7:02 a.m.  That's when we were getting up last year! 2.  Cambry is going to have get used to wearing shirts again - she's pretty good at just throwing some shorts on! 3.  We willl; go through a LOT LESS toilet paper once school begins!  It seems like I am always buying toilet paper. 4.  I'll miss the flexible evenings when we didn't have to worry about bedtimes, but I will embrace the structure and consistency that school brings! 5.  I'll also miss reading "Little House on the Prairie" books out loud.  We got through:  On the Banks of Plum Creek , By the Shores of Silver Lake , The Long Winter , and Little Town on the Prairie this summer. 6.  Cambry says she's excited about Kinderga...

1.  Sleep until 10 am (I had to go wake her up)! 2.  Play outside as much as you can - all day if you want to!  3.  Go on a 4-wheeler ride with Dad (her favorite thing in the whole world)!   4.  Eat as much cake . . .   . . . or as much pink icing as you can!  Cambry, being the awesome older sister that she is, suggested we make a birthday cake for her using her Easy Bake oven.  We did, and it turned out so cute!  Delaney only cared about the frosting, however! 5.  Open presents  6.  Chew on new bath toys since I'm getting new teeth!

Yesterday I made tomato sauce.  It's an all-day affair!  So, what does a certain 7-year-old boy do when his mom is busy all day?  He plays his new favorite game "Life on the Farm."  I sat down and played with him for 10 minutes in the morning.  The rest of the day (literally all day), he played for me along with himself.  It was amazing to see how much better he got during the day at figuring numbers.  There's a lot of multiplying by 10 and 100 - he was doing math without realizing it!  Although he really wished I could be playing, he did have a good time of it.  By the end of the day, he had over 300 cows in his herd.  Not sure how much money he still had, though! This is the square you want to pass as many times as you can! This is the square you want to avoid!

After Muir Woods, we headed up (or down - I'm not sure which way we were going) the winding coastal Highway 1 to Stinson Beach.  It was a beautiful drive in and out of fog, but it sure was curvy - not good on many of our stomachs!   When we finally made it, the weather was partly cloudy and only about 65 degrees.  We weren't planning on getting into our suits, but the lure of the ocean was too much to overcome.  The boys and Cambry decided to go for it!  What fun they had waiting for waves to come in and jump over them.  The younger ones enjoyed the sand with Candace and me.  I hope Caiden, at least, remembers his first beach experience! Heading in! Getting braver One of my favorite pictures - Cambry loved jumping in the ocean.  She even kept her poor finger out of the water! Delaney took quite a liking to Candace during our trip I forgot how the sand sticks to EVERYTHING!  Trying to beat a wave in - ...

I had skipped over most of day #3 of our trip because I was waiting on pictures.  I have them now, so I can fill in our missing day.  We had just taken the ferry across the bay to Sausalito.  When we arrived, we stopped at a little Greek deli and got some things for a picnic up in Muir Woods.  At the deli, a guy overheard me say I was from KS and he piped up to say he had just come back from Salina.  He had been there for a photo shoot (what in the world someone from SF is doing a photo shoot in Salina, KS is beyond me, but that's another story)!  His exact words were, "Yeah, it was like a thousand degrees there!"  And my reply was, "Yes, that's why we're here!"  Anyway, just one of those "it's a small world" moments. So, after finding a parking spot (nearly impossible - it involved circling the parking lot and waiting/hoping for a car to back out so we wouldn't have to park 3 miles away), we enjoyed a picnic by the gate of Muir Woo...

After 6 full days of vacation, this is how we all felt.  Delaney slept the entire 2 hour and 13 minute ride into Denver!  The next day, Cambry took 2 naps during the day (unprecedented), Caiden slept until 10 a.m. (also unheard of), and Delaney slept most of the day.  What a week!

After the Jelly Belly tour and In-N-Out it was time to make our way back down to San Francisco.  We had an early flight to catch the next morning.  Before they dropped us off as our hotel, however, we had one last stop to make.  Candace knew of a great beach outside of San Francisco that had little tide pools to explore in.  Getting there was a story in itself, but once we made it, we were glad we had gone to the trouble.  This beach is actually a nesting ground for some Harbor Seals.  And wouldn't you know it, they were actually there! The rocks on the beach were covered with moss and seaweed, so the walking was pretty slippery.  In the tide pools we saw starfish, sea anemones, hermit crabs, and other creatures.  The kids enjoyed digging in the sand, and I just loved walking around listening to the waves (and taking pictures)!  It was a beautiful place!  The Harbor Seals - it was fun to watch them flop along the beach!  We ha...

What would a trip to CA be without a stop at In-N-Out??

The day finally arrived - the day we could go to the Jelly Belly Factory! Every day before, the kids had asked if this was the day. They were looking forward to this free tour the most! It was an interesting tour around the factory. I wish I could have taken pictures, but they were not allowed. To see all the colors of all the jelly beans side by side made such a pretty picture. The free bag of Jelly Bellies afterwards wasn't bad either! The Sample Bar - you can try every kind of jelly bean How would you like to try these flavors? This is Chelan being very "happy" about the money we spent at the factory store. :)

Day #5 was all about Six Flags. How exciting! Dolphin, Killer Whale, and Sea Lion shows awaited us! I think we were there a good 7 hours (it seemed like most of those hours were spent at restroom stops)! How the kids made it through the day, I'll never know! Besides the shows, we enjoyed looking at some other sea animals, walking through a butterfly house, and riding just 2 "kiddie" rides. The kids had a blast! We had to try 2 times to watch the "Celebrate Shouka" show. The first time we went, Shouka didn't perform the skill she was supposed to and got sent to time-out (really)! When she came back out, she still did not cooperate, so they actually cancelled the show. She did much better about 3 hours later! I had no idea that could happen! Delaney really did watch the shows. Her eyes got very big when the animals would jump out of the water. I had to stare at this butterfly for a long time to see if it was real or not. I finally saw the sli...

I just had to take these pictures! Downtown San Francisco in the Financial District Between Fairfield and Sacramento

On the way home from Sacramento - Cambry, Finn, and Delaney

After everyone was ready to go, and after Delaney had a morning nap, we made our way north to Sacramento. We spent the afternoon at the Train Museum and walking up and down "Old Town Sacramento." The train museum was fun because there were so many big trains for the kids to look at and climb into. There were all kinds of cars - from passenger cars, to dining cars, to mail cars. After the museum, we hit the streets and found a place to get ice cream cones. Yummy! We got to watch this short "march" through the streets of Old Sacramento just as we finished lunch.